Friday, 29 March 2013

You may have heard the buzz about the Orbital Comics upcoming Image Duplicator show, so I thought it was high time I posted about it here. With the Lichtenstein exhibition currently showing at the Tate, Rian Hughes came up with an idea to celebrate the original creators and images that inspired his world-famous pop art, by inviting artists to create their own work inspired by the same original comic panels. With thanks to Jason Atomic, the show's organiser and Karl Asaa and Chris Thompson at Orbital, here's some information on what it is… First of all, Image Duplicator is not anti-Lichtenstein. While each contributor has their own ideas and thoughts about Lichtenstein’s work, the main focus is to shine a light on the original artists and their work. You can read more about the philosophy behind Image Duplicatorin this great article over at The Beat!

You can follow the latest developments on the exhibition and the growing list of contributors on the group’s Facebook page. And if that’s not enough, you can read more about Lichtenstein and his work in this well researched piece by Paul Gravett. Image Duplicator is shaping up to be quite a special show, so stay tuned here and the Orbital site for further details, which include a debate on Lichtenstein’s work with some very special guests!

Here are some of the submissions so far, and a few facts about the show from Rian.

Dave Gibbons

What you need to know:

WHERE: A show at the Orbital Gallery, 8 Great Newport St, London, WC2H 7JA

WHEN: May 16th-31st, - a week pre and post the end of the Tate's Lichtenstein show, with a possibility of extending it for another week after.

Carl Flint

HIGH CONCEPT:

Pop artist Roy Lichtensein currently has a show on at the Tate. While the public is intimately familiar with his work, what they may be unaware of is how closely many of his images were "appropriated" from comic artists like Irv Novick, Russ Heath, Jack Kirby, John Romita and Joe Kubert, who received no fee or credit.

Is this an act of brilliant recontexturalisation? The elevation of commercial "low" art to "high" art? Art world snobbery? Artistic licence? Cultural annexation? Gallery shortsightedness? Or something else?

This show is a chance for real comic-book artists (and other "commercial artists" - illustrators, designers etc) to ask these kinds of questions and share their views, via their work.

Mitch O'Connell

THE PLAN:

Every interested comic artist (or illustrator, graphic designer or other "commercial artist") should "re-reappropriate" one of the comic images Lichtenstein used, and rework it, using some of their 'commercial art' drawing skills, to warp and twist it into something interesting and original, and in the process to comment on this type of appropriation.

The IMPORTANT thing to stress is that you'd be going back to the source material and re-reappropriating Coletta, Novick, Kirby et al - NOT copying Lichtenstein, as we don't want copyright issues from the Lichtenstein estate.

Please give credit to the original artist: "Artist Name after Irv Novick", for example. See this as a celebratory, positive show which aims to get the point across that the original artists deserve credit and respect.

Al Davison

DEADLINE:

6 April to allow for designing and printing the catalogue. Entries submitted after this deadline may not be included in this catalogue. We want your absolute best work! The judges decision is final.

Shaky Kane

SIZE AND MEDIA:

As Orbital Gallery is small, please keep sizes under A1 (or even A2), though not necessarily those proportions - a square image is fine, for example. For digital work that will be output as a print, the final file size should be 300dpi at your chosen dimensions. Lo-res images can be uploaded to the IMAGE DUPLICATOR page - high-res images will be needed by the deadline. A drop-box to upload these to will be set up nearer the time, and the details given here.

Mark Blamire

SALES:

As suggested by Dave Gibbons, money raised from selling prints or originals will be donated to the Hero Initiative, which helps down-on-their-luck comics veterans:http://www.heroinitiative.org/ Again, a nice way to Give Back the Art.

Rian Hughes and Jason Atomic

Rian Hughes

And lastly for now, my own submission which is also my third John Romita homage after 'Face it, Tiger!' and the 'Black Widow' for the Stripped exhibition.

Thursday, 28 March 2013

I had the good fortune to attend the preview of this yesterday and it really managed to capture the essence of the 60's and 70's, especially with the black & white footage, as you'll see in this trailer...

Wednesday, 27 March 2013

I forgot to post this when I got a copy, but with Doctor Who back on tv this weekend it's more relevant now anyway. Jenna-Louise Coleman photographed by Helen McArdle. Evening Standard magazine, 22.02.13

While I'm on a Gerry Anderson tip, here's The Lady Penelope Annual from 1968. Not actually from my own childhood, but this was kindly given to me a few years ago by Sophie Aldred who played Ace in Doctor Who. Actually, there's a bit of news relating to Sophie that I'll be posting soon.

Sunday, 24 March 2013

With a CG reboot of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds on the horizon, I began to wonder what had happened to the update of his live-action show UFO that was in the news a few years ago. Sadly, all seems to have gone quiet on that front, though I can't quite imagine how a reworked version of the show would look anyhow. Having briefly worked on the first cancelled version of the Thunderbirds movie myself, (mentioned here) I know that certain aspects are changed to make them more contemporary, but the things that make them appealing in the first place are the things that would probably be first out of the window. Would anyone in their right mind apply for a job to work on the moon, where purple wigs and silver mini-skirts were compulsory attire? I mean, c'mon! How could a government agency enforce such a strict dress code on their operatives. String vests for our submarine division? White slim-fit catsuits for our ground staff? Makes total sense - not! And yet this was all part of the appeal of the show and what made it look so friggin' cool in the 70's.

Oat Krunchies cereal box from 1970

My first sighting of UFO on the telly was during a childhood trip to Ipswich, where for some reason it was being aired way ahead of London. The fact that packs of Oat Krunchies, my favourite breakfast cereal had begun to feature a guy called Ed Straker on the box suddenly all made sense.

I was chatting to my Marvel UK and 2000AD colleague, John Tomlinson the other day about his favourite recollections of the show, and I'll quote him here... JT:"That was one of the best things about Gerry Anderson's stuff. No matter how outlandish and preposterous the concepts he flung at you, they were executed with such style and slickness, such cool costumes and visuals that it didn't seem to matter. Absolutely nothing in UFO really worked from a practical point of view (three measly interceptors with ONE cumbersome missile each? Gedouddahere! And how come the UFOs weren't constantly blowing that orbital snitch SID out of the sky?), but it looked fantastic."

John has pretty much the same childhood recollection that I had as a kid, regarding the Moonbase operatives that I mentioned in an earlier post about my own top secret organisation SPI, operating out of a coal-bunker in my friends back garden (The Far-Flung Future of 1980). Anyway, I digress... John continues... "No memory of UFO could ever eclipse the image of Gabrielle Drake in her bacofoil bikini. But I also liked the grim scenes between Straker and Freeman in which one would say to the other 'Anything?' and the other inevitably replied 'Nothing.' Seemed to happen every week. I still do that with people now!"

Gabrielle Drake as Lieutenant Gay Ellis.

Lt. Gay Ellis was most often seen as Moonbase Commander in the first half of the series.

JT: "Straker was such an old sexist. He never seemed to know what to say to women, except demand that they perform menial tasks or fix him a drink. If he ever did get the helmet off a female UFO pilot he'd just smirk and ask 'how about a nice cup of alien cworfee?'"

Wanda Ventham as Col. Virginia Lake with Commander Ed Straker.

Virginia Lake with Paul Foster's car. Straker's car was discovered rusting away in someone's back garden and is now being renovated (see comments).

Wanda Ventham with THAT Gull-Wing car.

Sylvia Anderson's on-trend Alien fashion.

Identified Flying Object.

Col. Alec E. Freeman and Lt. Gay Ellis.

The Lunar Module approaching or leaving Moonbase, can't tell which.

Lt. Ellis gets out of her work clothes and into her civvies, which look almost identical.

I stumbled upon some really nice designs by an artist called Arcas on DeviantArt, who'd rendered his own impressive interpretation of the Moonbase operatives. I asked him if I could post a couple of these and he was cool about it, so here they are. You can check out his other work right here.

UFO 2KX: Moonbase Duo by Arcas

Colonel Virginia Lake and Lt. Ellis by Arcas

This menu for the Italian DVD release is a real treat, well worth checking out!

Opening titles for Gerry Anderson's 1970 tv series in high definition with classic music by Barry Gray.

STOP PRESS

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